taxes, no specific cuts according to "the new york times" and "wall street journal." actually, $50 billion more in stimulus spending and no specific spending cuts. it was a nonstarter, and they knew it was a nonstarter. richard wolffe, my question to you is, why did the white house decide to have this as their opening volley when they knew the response would be a negative one that they drew? >> well, they put on $400 billion in medicare cuts. so there were some specifics in there. but was it a hardball opening? yeah, of course it was. the question is, what's the counteroffer, right? they're trying to not just provoke a no. they want the counteroffer. and the counteroffer is, what is it? there isn't one. >> it looks like right now it will probably come back now as $800 billion in new revenue, probably higher specific cuts. >> you forget one extra demand, of course, which is ban the debt ceiling piece. that's huge, right? that's, like, unilateral disarmament. we're going to offer you to unilaterally disarm. i like that one, too. because they were sensible. let's face it, the markets